Brief Exposition (Stanley) n. 98

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98. The sole reason why the Christian world has fallen into a faith which has put away from itself all the truths and goods of heaven and the Church, even to the separation of itself from them, is that the leaders of the Church have divided God into three, and have not believed the Lord God, the Saviour, to be one with God the Father, and thus have not approached Him directly; when, nevertheless, He alone as to His Human is Divine Truth itself, which is "the Word," which "was God, with God," and the "true Light which enlightens every man," and which "was made flesh," John i 1, 2, 9, 14. That He is Truth itself, and thus Light itself, is also testified in other places; for He says:

I am the light of the world. John viii 12; ix, 5.

And in another place He says,

While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light . . . I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. John xii 36, 46.

In the Revelation we read:

I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. . . and the bright and morning Star. Rev. xxii 13, 16.

And in Matthew it is written:

When Jesus was transfigured . . . His face shone as the sun, and His raiment became as the light. Matt. xvii 2.

Hence it is clear from what cause this imaginary faith came into the world; manifestly, because men have not approached the Lord. Now, from all my experience, and thence by testimony from heaven, I can declare for certain that it is impossible to derive a single theological truth, which is genuine, from any other source than from the Lord alone and that to derive such truth from any other source is as impossible as it is to sail from England or Holland to the Pleiades, or to ride on horseback from Germany to Orion in the sky.


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